


Not Death, But Love

by unoriginal_liz



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-03
Updated: 2009-02-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/908016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unoriginal_liz/pseuds/unoriginal_liz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An ordinary nurse, in an ordinary hospital.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Death, But Love

**Author's Note:**

> Drabble written for thebucketwoman on lj. Title comes from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets From the Portuguese.

An ordinary nurse, in an ordinary hospital.

It's a good thing Margaret likes a challenge, because _that_ might just be the most impossible task she's ever set herself. When was she ever 'ordinary'? More importantly, when did 'ordinary' become something to strive for, instead of a backhanded compliment? Ordinary, adequate, good enough...she'd always striven for superlatives.

Before.

During the war, it was hard. Of _course_ it was - for crying out loud, she didn't go into a _war_ with stars in her eyes. She had her feet firmly planted on the ground from the first and if it was harder than she ever imagined it could be, well...that doesn't cast aspersions on her pragmatism. That casts aspersions on common human decency.

She sees them still - the wounded, the dead, the dying. Their faces are the ether that sends her spinning into sleep. They catch her unaware during the daytime too, just momentary flashes as she goes about her business.

She doesn't entertain for a moment the idea that she's going crazy. She knows better. It's _love_ \- and you'd better believe that Margaret Houlihan knows a thing or two about that. Love's a lot of things, but it's also hard and desperate and hopeless...

...and full of regrets. She's got the bloody bootprints on her heart to prove it.

The kicker is, life'd be a lot easier without it, but it also wouldn't be much like life.

So she grits her teeth and lets the parade of faces and bodies, named and nameless, march through her mind whenever they choose to. And she tries on this new, ordinary life for size, and maybe a little bit for those who won't ever get the chance.

She's a survivor. She got through a whole damn war...she's not going to let love finish her off.


End file.
